


Little Things

by Catherine256



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24913336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catherine256/pseuds/Catherine256
Summary: Neil starts noticing everything about her as their friendship progresses. The most, he likes this cute little things that makes her so amazing and really gets him.
Relationships: Claire Browne/Neil Melendez
Comments: 15
Kudos: 40





	Little Things

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, guys! It’s my birthday today and I want to share this sweet story with you. I hope you enjoy it:)
> 
> Please, don’t forget to leave a comment.

i.

Claire likes braiding her upper locks, leaving most of the hair loose behind her back. It’s done to not distract her from work throughout the day. And it works so well, her hair isn’t bothering her so much and her head isn’t hurting that way compared to her hair pulled in a tight ponytail. But it has its benefits too. And sometimes her curls tied up on the crown of her head. Anyway, at the end of the hard day – most of the time – thick waves of strands pull out of her hairdo and fall on her face, tickling her a bit glittering skin.

He notices it every time. She doesn’t put it away, thinking only about her patients and treatments and plans and surgeries and all. And Melendez can’t help but smile, seeing this little thing about her.

He thinks it’s cute.

“What?” Claire’s curious eyes catch his and Neil freezes up.

She sits on the couch in the resident lounge surrounded by papers and notes. Her hazel green eyes are shining and perfect lines of her concerned face are lighting up, looking so alluring and bright in that lonely room.

“Nothing,” Neil shakes his head and goes away from the doorway to his office.

She’s staring at him for a few more minutes as he’s finishing some work. And he notices it, too.

ii.

Neil tries to come up with a right treatment for their post-op patient who has an allergy on some of the chemicals in meds. He reads a lot of research alongside Shaun and Claire this late morning.

She concentrates on some paper, sipping her coffee slowly. Her pink full lips, puffed and moistened from a hot drink, is a little pursed as she runs her gaze through lines of paper.

He’s glancing carefully at her, smiling a bit, and remembering that the same face she makes every time they go bowling and she tries to outplay him. And she puts her index finger to her bottom lips thoughtfully, looking away for a moment. It really gets him and she doesn’t know.

“Maybe we should try this one?” Claire shows Melendez and Murphy a paper with a name of a drug that could be useful for this case.

“I think that’s a good one,” Shaun replies, reading information about it.

“Okay, let’s go to the patient then,” Melendez agrees and Murphy stands and goes away happily, crossing his hands on the chest.

“Bowling tonight,” Claire says quickly, making sure Shaun is gone.

Neil scoffs at her not-quite-a-question offer, “Of course,” he responds softly and gets her nod.

He notices a gentle smile playing on her still puffy lips as she goes out the door, drinking her coffee.

iii.

It was almost midnight when he finished his urgent surgery and was headed to his office. There’s not a lot of people left on the floor. He slowly goes by wards, kneading his stiff neck.

And then he sees her still there, although he let all residents go home before his surgery started.

He looks around to make sure no one watches him. There’s only one nurse on her post and she’s busy with some paperwork. His legs move him closer to the ward where she was.

Claire talks about something to her patient, a little boy about seven years old, and laughs with him. Her hands gently tuck him in as she helps him to make a blanket covering him right. There’s a bag under her eyes but she doesn’t complain at all.

She smiles cheekily. And it’s natural how she behaves with kids. How she looks at them softly and understandably; how she caresses them with the gentlest touches; how she supports them and helps to get through it; how she just talks to them about anything really. Even when she doesn’t feel okay, she is always there for her patients. It’s all just so right.

He knows how brilliant she is. And she never stops amazing him.

Neil’s gaze is on her gentle hands, one of them lays on the blanket and another holds a little hand of the boy, listening to him attentively. He notices that her thumb rubs soothingly on the boy’s palm. And then he leans up to hug her tightly.

Melendez feels his heart skips a beat.

He tries not to think about how wonderful it’d be to have a child with Claire. What their family could be like? It’s weird, they don't even get together and it won't happen, he says to himself.

But the thoughts are beautiful, if you ask him.

He smiles, thinking about this inspiring picture, and then retreats to his office before Claire can notice him staring at her.

But she is. And seeing this peaceful expression on his face make her smiling even bigger as she continues to hold a boy in her arms, rubbing his back softly.

iv.

Melendez steals her glances constantly. Her green sparkling eyes make him a little nervous as they watch him. Study him even. He notices it not quite instantly. But as time goes by and they get closer from day to day and their friendship grows into something they both are scared of, he pays more attention to the little glances she gives him.

Her eyes are so alluring. He sees all the emotions she could express with it. Bliss, happiness, sadness, fear, anger, apprehension, admiration, vigilance, grief, amazement, serenity; all of it. And he wouldn’t want to miss even one of them, he wants to be beside her when she’s absolutely happy or unbearably sad and lost.

“It scares me every time when a family should decide if their kid would die from disease or get a surgery and maybe survive. Or maybe die on the operating table,” she says almost breathlessly, squeezing the railing tightly and looking at him with fear.

Her beautiful eyes are his own guidance for everything she feels, for sure.

“You know, sometimes you better have to give it a shot and see what happened than waste time on pointless waiting that ends badly,” he responds softly and puts a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it soothingly, but still trying to keep an appropriate distance between them.

Neil especially likes this tension between him and Claire when she looks into his eyes too deep, with longing, just staring openly. And he does the same. It feels special and wrong at the same time.

And now is that exact moment. They are standing on the balcony, stopping talks about their patient and plans for tomorrow night – running and then dinner together like they did a number of times before.

She’s just stunned, he can say. The air around them is so thick right now when her emerald green eyes, shining in the moonlight, looks in his dark brown ones. She finally looks at him with slight regret and... something warm and comforting, that he’s sure his own eyes are mirroring right now.

If he says it even in his mind, it might feel too real. Their friendship is already too risky for them. And more?.. They can’t.

She softly gazes at him for a few minutes that feels like a lifetime and then exhales deeply, nodding.

“I have to go. See you tomorrow,” Claire breaks their eye contact and sadness covers him when he is left alone on the balcony after she quickly disappears.

v.

Today was tough. It actually lasted for thirty eight hours straight. And the only thing that’s on his mind right now is getting home and catching on a nice, long sleep.

Still, he is in the office, reading through some papers and trying to understand what it is about. It’s harder than he thinks. He rolls sleeves of his shirt up, but it doesn’t help. His clothes became absolutely uncomfortable after this long shift.

He covers his face with hands and inhales, leaning back in his chair. Fingers are rubbing hardly on his tired eyes, trying to make him alive again to finish all the work and go home after that finally. His heavy head makes him comfortable now on the back of his seat and he thinks for a moment that it’s not a bad idea to nap here for a little while.

But as his eyelids relax and hands lowered on his chest and crosses he hears a soft knocking on his glass door on the left.

His eyes open again to see Claire in the doorway with her brows lifted a bit and her lips smiling tiredly to him.

“You need to go home, that’s more than enough for you already,” she says and approaches him.

Neil watches her slow movements and swallows when she suddenly gets really close to him and looks down into his eyes with understanding, “Yeah, just a couple of charts and I’m done,” he backs to his table and moans lightly from how his head felt even heavier this time.

“Give me something, it’ll be faster if I’ll help you,” she takes a seat in front of him behind the desk on the other side and reaches out to take a folder.

He hesitates but only for a seconds, he is really worn out and it’d be stupid to refuse a help, “Okay.”

His heart plummets as their fingertips touch immediately when he gives her a chart. This warm feeling of her skin on his is something that cheered him up. She pulls a folder to herself and he notices her gaze on their thumbs that touches each other lightly.

It’s nice to feel even this small amount of her skin on his. She’s radiant, breathtaking, marvelous.

It gets him, too.

To be honest, everything about her gets him.

Claire smiles softly and he lets go of the chart, stopping being stunned.

Neil carefully looks at her all the time and they are finishing the work. But she’s a little out of place, tiredly completing this chart. But it takes only half an hour to do everything he had to do before going home. And he’s grateful she helped him, even in the overworking state they both were.

She looks at him, grinning, and suddenly squeezes his hand a bit, saying goodnight, and then leaves him alone again.

His hand freezes, still shrouded in the warmth of Claire’s small palm although she left a long time ago. Her amusing gesture made him think about what it feels like if he’d be able to touch her longer than friendship is allowing.

He exhales heavily, forbidding himself to think about her soft brown skin, that reminds of sweet milk chocolate; about her tender touch, the one that gives to loved ones trying to show them how much you care; about her smile, soft and dim; about her sparkling green eyes and this delicate gaze she always gives her patients and him.

It’s hard not to remember all the time he steals her brief looks, touches that make him thrilling. She really knows how to _be_ with people. Her caring, empathic nature inspires him to be the better version of himself.

vi.

He finally gets to the door of his house and makes it inside, tiredly slips out of his shoes, leaves his briefcase on the floor next to them, throws his jacket on one of the barstools. But all his thoughts go around this brilliant woman that was not only a friend of his, but a resident. It’s so wrong he finally feels something to the person he can’t be without.

Neil was already on the way to his bedroom when he heard a couple of knocks on his front door. It isn’t the time he expects anyone there. He thinks for a moment not to open the door. But chaotic knocks keep going. If he wants to fall asleep finally better go and see who came to him or that can never stop.

The door’s opening slowly. And he inhales. “Claire?”

She approaches him hesitantly, looking up into his eyes.

“I... I just want you to know that it’s stupid how we act around each other.”

He closes the door behind her and she looks around, seeing all his things here and there, laying around, he just didn’t have time to put it all back in its place.

“Sorry. You wanted to rest finally,” she shakes her head, looking down embarrassedly.

And he notices how cute this uncontrollably curly strand frames her face. And then her long fingers gracefully put it behind her ears.

“Now it’s gonna be hard to sleep, never knowing what you wanted to say,” Melendez leans on the wall beside him and crosses arms comfortably on his chest.

“Well, okay. I’ll be quick,” she squeezes her purse in hands tightly, hesitating to look into his waiting dark eyes again. “Um... okay... It’s great to have a friend like you, but it’s not all who we are to each other, right?” She sounds not as confident as she tries to look.

His head goes around a bit and feels foggy as he tries to process what she just said.

“What?”

“You know, what. Neil... this can’t go on like that,” she bites her cheek from the inside nervously.

“Nothing is going on here,” he frowns.

“Really?” She looks disappointed. “Um, I’m sorry, I get things wrong,” she retreats, trying to find a lock behind her back.

“We’re friends, aren’t we?” A fatigue’s laying down on his shoulders and he can’t help but exhale.

She gives a long look as he tries to memorize all parts of her beautiful face, shining in the silver moonlight that is entering from the big windows in his living room and lighting up all of the corners of his apartment enough to savor Claire's flawless.

“That’s not enough anymore,” she tells him boldly, rubbing one of her heated cheeks.

“Huh?” He only murmurs.

And Claire rolls her eyes frustratedly. He’s too tired to react in time and understand what she's talking about. Before he even knew her hand makes his face lean closer persistently as her soft lips are already on his and her free arm went around his middle.

Neil finally feels that amazing warm one of her hand on his back and another on a sensitive nape of his neck, her face skin flushing under his palm, her puffed lips kissing him urgently. Her curls pleasantly tickles on his cheeks.

Claire wants to pull back already, scared that he isn’t going to do that with her, but then his lips start moving carefully against hers. And she exhales lightly through their open mouth kiss.

It’s so sweet to feel all of this small things he noticed about her this closer, being able to tangle his fingers in her loose hair, touch her full slightly wet lips with his, gently studying her mouth with his tongue, feel her tender yet strong hands on his body, squeezing his shirt.

He smiles, tasting this familiar coffee on Claire’s lips. His mind is blurry after he fully realized there’s not gonna be only friendship anymore. He can’t be friends with a woman that kissed him that affectionately.

And lovingly.

That’s it. Love. He’s so afraid of it, but now it’s the only right confession he has in his heart.

It feels like it’s always been her. Only her.

And they are breathlessly stopping their little torture, that made them too excited. His forehead touches hers as she opens her eyes and meets his.

Those beautiful, charming, emerald eyes of hers that now are looking at him with pleasure, desire even; those aroused pink lips she’s biting impatiently. It makes him steal some more kisses from this wonderful woman, watching her closely.

“That’s... pretty clear now,” he scoffs lightly, holding her, rubbing her warm back soothingly.

“I’m glad you finally got it. It’d be hard to explain it the other way,” she grins, seeing him rolling his eyes at this snide comment.

“Maybe I’d like it the other way, too,” now it’s his time to smirk.

His thumb starts rubbing her heated cheek gently as she tries to look away, feeling overwhelmed.

“Hey, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he says softly and meets her eyes again.

“I know, everything’s alright. Just you should know... I don’t want to rush things,” she whispers and kisses him again.

Neil understands what she’s talking about and rubs her back slowly, “Of course, I didn’t mean it,” he reassures her. “But I guess we admitted that we love each other,” he’s not sure but then her smile’s answering him. “I love you. Just wanted to make it fully clear.”

“Yeah, I get it already,” Claire laughs and touches his seductive lips one more time. “Love you, too,” she exhales.

He frames her face with his palms and kisses her tenderly.


End file.
